Портфолио ученицы ГОУ СОШ №1363 Третьяковой Елены

Endangered European languages

Every two weeks somewhere in the world dies in one language. This fate is believed to be able to find about forty percent of all world languages.

There are 6800 languages in the world, but only some of them are used by the majority of planet’s population.Scientists are worried because somelanguages become less and less popular.

Linguists estimate that by the end of the century away half of the currently existing languages are able to die. Loss of the languages entails the loss of consciousness.

Breton.

Breton (self Brezhoneg) refers to the Celtic group of Indo-European language family, very close to Welsh, Cornish (especially the latest) and related Gallic. It is distributed in northwestern France in Brittany.

Detailed information about the Breton language has been known since srednebretonskogo period .Throughout its history, Breton was strongly influenced by French. It has no official status after the loss of autonomy of Brittany. Breton has remained as a spoken language mainly in some ruralareas. French began to dominate completely in XVIII century.

Currently, the Breton language is under threat: most of its carriers is old persons, and language isnot actively transferred to the younger generation. At the same time in the Breton language, there is literature, radio and television broadcasts, there is a network of schools.

Kashubianlanguage.

Kashubian language - West Slavic languages lehitskoy subgroups, spread west and south of Gdansk.

The closest language to the Kashubian language is Polish. The main differences from the Polish are borrowingsfrom oldGerman language (from the last - about 5% of the vocabulary). Currently in Poland there are dozens of schools in which children are taught Kashubian language.

Mandansky language.

Closest to mandanskomu is the language of the tribe of Winnebago. Mandan Hart arrived at the river between 10 and 13 centuries and founded a village here 9: 2 on the east and 7 on the west coast. In 1750 there were nine villages of Mandan, but several epidemics of smallpox and cholera reduced by 1800 their number to two. After a smallpox epidemic in 1837, only 100-150 Mandan survived. Some of them in 1845, moved to the tribe hidatsa at Fort Berthold, and most others moved to the same later. The number of descendants of Mandanwas 369 in 2000.

Eighty percent of the population speak the eighty most common languages (English, Russian, Chinese and others), and supports the three and a half thousand small languages represent only 0.2 percent.

Why do languages die?

The main reasons are globalization and migration. Under the pressure of economic factors, people move from villages to cities, and local dialects give way to the Koine - language used for communication in the city. Significant role played by the choice, do the children. For example, a child who grew up in a bilingual family where they speak Spanish and the Maya may decide that Spanish is better because it is spoken in schools and on television.

Perhaps even more important is the fact that individual words, and cultural diversity are important elements of human knowledge, are an endangered language carries with him into the grave.

With language people lose their culture, their individuality, their feature.

How Can We Save Languages?

What can be done to prevent the destruction of language and stored in its knowledge?

Australian Doris Edgar (Doris Edgar) - one of three remaining speakers of the language Yavuru. His wife, despite the octogenarian age, attends school in Broome (Western Australia), trying to interest students the names of local plants in the language Yavuru, as well as how to use them.